May 20 letters to the editor

I'm happy BART officials and Richmond police are planning for the safety of passengers and their property at the new Richmond BART parking garage.

The $28 million garage is only a good investment if riders feel safe using it.

I've had my car broken into three times in the Richmond parking lot. I routinely saw broken glass on the ground. This stopped when construction of the new garage began.

As a result of this experience, I have a few suggestions.

The parking-lot attendants put in as a temporary solution during construction have made a noticeable difference in lot safety. Rather than increasing police patrols and leaving the garage unattended most of the time, why not staff the garage with persons charged with helping riders with transit/parking questions? The presence of people performing jobs seems to discourage opportunistic crime.

I also suggest this type of staff from day one. It would help BART patrons with the transition to the new garage and paying for parking. More importantly, it would inhibit the establishment of crime in the garage in the first place. It would be harder to kick the criminals out later.

Would you want your loved ones walking through an unattended enclosed garage after dark in a high-crime area?

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S.S. Suko

Richmond

Need to preserve historical sites

Many questions have arisen concerning the demise of the dome theater and lack of involvement by the Pleasant Hill Historical Society.

When we learned of the plans for the dome, the project review process had moved too far along to legally stop demolition. Were we upset? Of course, and we want to find a way to prevent this happening to other historic and cultural sites in the city.

Pleasant Hill needs an active historical society that works not only on preserving our historical landmarks, such as Rodgers Ranch, but also stays informed of current development plans so we and the public can become involved early in the planning process.

What of the fate of the Old Schoolhouse, or the Soldiers Monument? Our city needs active volunteers to improve our ability to identify and protect these sites. The society will next meet at 7 p.m. May 23 at Rodgers Ranch, 315 Cortsen Road.

Pleasant Hill Koroslev is the president of the Pleasant Hill Historical Society and Friends of Rodgers Ranch.

There are worse things to fear

After reading a recent letter from Dave Newbry, "Government is disarming us," the chorus from a Buffalo Springfield song gently echoed in my head: "Paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep, it starts when you are always afraid."

Newbry states that a common element of governments guilty of gross human rights violations is the disarming of their citizens. He concludes that the United States is now trying to disarm its citizens, which is a process to be feared.

Actually, countries with poor human rights records have little or no freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure

If Newbry (and members of the gun lobby) would like something to fear, I suggest they focus their attention on the recently renewed "Patriot Act," or proposed Stop Online Piracy Act legislation, or recent efforts by some states to tighten voter registration procedures, rather than worrying about how many bullets they can legally put into their rifle clip or what is the biggest, most destructive weapon they can legally own.

Geoffrey Taylor Rice

Benicia

Sex education and birth control

Regarding Connie Clark Benson's recent letter, "Why make such a speech at all," if Dr. Kermit Gosnell did what he is accused of, the punishment meted out to him will be inadequate to what he deserves.

However, the purported fact that Planned Parenthood performs 300,000 abortions a year is more attributable to our nation's stupid position on sex education and birth control than some evil intent on the part of Planned Parenthood.

At some time we, as a nation, need to admit that telling young or ignorant people, "Just don't have sex outside of marriage," doesn't work. We should give our children all of the information about sexual activity and it's biological consequences (not religious) that they are capable of learning.

We should make birth control available, free. In the case of those who have so destroyed their lives with drug or alcohol abuse that they are incapable of learning or choosing, we should offer a bribe for them to use Norplant, or some other long-lasting birth control.

President Bill Clinton's statement that "abortion should be safe, legal and rare" might actually come to pass if we follow the above.